About

Vacthera is a biotechnology company developing influenza virus based vaccines and cancer immuno therapies

Our platform technology enables the generation of stable influenza virus vaccine vectors that can be produced at high yields. We focus on two areas:

A UniversalFlu Vaccine

This vaccine not only protects against a single vaccine subtype but also against all other known influenza viral strains of influenza A and B viruses. Thus it will also protect against emerging epidemic and pandemic viruses without the need of the accurate definition of the upcoming virus. Despite the strong medical need, there is currently no universal influenza vaccine on the market.

An Oncolytic Flu Virusto Treat Solid Cancer

Oncolytic viruses are a novel type of tumor immunotherapy complementing standard therapies including checkpoint inhibitors. Viruses are engineered to conditionally replicate in cancer tissue leading to tumor destruction by stimulation of the immune system. The founders of Vacthera were the first to generate an oncolytic virus for the influenza virus family. Currently the development is in a preclinical stage.

The company is located in Vienna, Austria.

02

Technology

Vacthera has generated a stable highly immunogenic influenza virus vector prototype which can express foreign proteins and that is attenuated but most importantly can be produced at high yields. Thus, this platform influenza virus vector can be used for various applications including the generation of vaccines and oncolytic viruses.

The attenuation of the vector is based on the deletion in the immune-suppressive domain of the NS1 protein of the virus and modification of the NEP protein. As a result of the dual attenuation markers vaccine vectors are highly attenuated upon intranasal administration ensuring safety but enabling a high level of immune stimulation. (or: Due to the deletion of NS1 the vaccine vector stimulate part of the immune system even more effective than the wild type virus,)

The stable expression of the transgene is possible as I) foreign sequences that are integrated into the natural open reading frames of the virus and as II) viruses that have been adapted to the expression of the transgenes.

A novel purification method ensures a 90% viral recovery at the stage of drug production. The production of the engineered virus is cheap and highly effective using the standard egg production technology.

Our Team

News

November 2017

Vacthera present at the Bio Europe in Munich

The Vacthera Team was present and met with potential investors and strategic partners.

May 2017

Vacthera to present at this year’s BioVaria in Munich

Vacthera was selected as one of only ten European biotech start ups to present at this year’s spin off panel at the annual BioVaria on May 22nd. BioVaria aims to connect promissing new projects with established industry players and is one of the leading events of its kind in Europe. Hosted by severeal European research promotion agencies and world leading leading German reseach organizations such as the Max Planck Gesellschaft or the Helmholtz Gemeinschaft. Additional funding is provided by the Government of the Free State of Bavaria.

April 2017

Vacthera wins the 2017 Best of Biotech (BoB) Competition

On April 27th Vacthera was selected the winner of the biannual Best of Biotech competition hosted by the Austria Wirtsschaftsservice GmbH (aws), the public SME promotion agency. A jury of well regarded experts considered Vacthera to be a very promissing early stage biotech company with a destinctive approach to therapeutic areas with a high medical need. Read more on the original aws press release: http://www.bestofbiotech.at/Content.Node/winners/5445.en1.php

Feb 2017

Vacthera part of the inits start up camp

On March 2nd Vacthera was selected to participate in the Spring 2017 class of the inits start up camp. Inits is a world leading incubation program targeted on startups with an acadmic background. Besides a financial contribution intis offers valuable insights and training to early stage entrepreneurs with science based products and services. In a three months lasting course skills in business modeling, marketing or finance as well as story telling and presentation and pitching are sharpend and refined. Learn more here: www.inits.at

Dec 2016

Vacthera Live Case at Commercializing Science Course at Harvard Business School (HBS)

In Fall 2016 Vacthera participated as the only European project in the Commercializing Science Course at the Harvard Buisness School in Boston, Mass. This course is taught by Prof. Vicki Sato a preeminent personality in both and academia as well the biotech industry in combination with Prof. Gary Pisano. Besides being a professor for management Prof. Sato holds several board seats at big pharma as well as medium sized and up start biotech companies.

In this course MBA candidates and Postdocs from the Harvard Medical School and the MIT learn the necessary skills to successfully start their own biotech ventures. Vacthera was selected as a model case in a competitive multi stage selection process.

The HBS team helped Vacthera to sharpen its business model and better understand the dynamics of its target markets, both in cancer and vaccines.